


Like a Harp String Plucked

by TTMIYH



Series: The Suffering Collection [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Darkfic, F/M, Gen, Humanstuck, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions, Minific, Physical Abuse, The Suffering Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:43:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6576196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TTMIYH/pseuds/TTMIYH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi Peixes is one of two orderlies assigned to the Captor case. Lifelong imprisonment in an asylum, padded walls and straitjacket, the whole shebang. In the middle of flirtations with her partner, Eridan Ampora, she discovers herself falling for the bifurcated convict, cascading into several events that will change all four of their lives forever.</p><p>A direct sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6565702">Perfection</a>, however, reading Perfection is <em>NOT</em> necessary to understand the events in Like a Harp String Plucked.</p><p>WARNING: <em>VIOLENT, HOLY SHIT</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Maledictation

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry.

Feferi Peixes liked to consider herself normal.

She was considered by many to be an excessively nice lady, in contrast to her grandmother, Meenah, a crotchety old hag who somehow managed to get away with essentially running the city. They didn't talk much. Feferi was disowned by her, or, maybe the other way around, maybe Feferi disowned her. Meenah took a hardline stance on criminals, while Feferi was more into the art of rehabilitation. Taking someone who was broken and turning them into a normal, productive member of society again, instead of wasting money keeping them locked down.

With the Captor case, though, Feferi had her doubts.

The 22 year old high-school dropout had a crippling case of, well, several disorders, exaggerated at first from withdrawal from an unknown drug, withdrawal that wore off after his first couple of days in his padded cell. The trial, Feferi was told, was quick and simple. The insanity defense was an easy sweep, rare in these days, and he was quickly carted off to the asylum.

Straitjacket, padded walls, the whole shebang. His black, stringy, oily hair fell in a loose mop above his pale face, black bags under his eyes. He was razor thin, all bones and skin, making Feferi feel bad every time she would have to feed him. He had a special tray for himself, since the normal ones were asymmetrical and he would refuse to eat from them. Even the trays needed to be loaded enough with identical servings on both sides, from the amount to the shape they made. At the very least, she could feed him starting from one side as long as she immediately took the next spoonful from the other, from the same position, in the opposite direction. Ambidexterity was finally useful.

Eridan, meanwhile... Well, he wasn't ambidextrous like Feferi was, nor was he considered as universally attractive. Feferi had on her a loose, slightly chubby pear shape - she used to be a dedicated swimmer in school, but fattened up a little after she exited college. Eridan, meanwhile, resembled Sollux in his stick-like demeanor, although not quite as unhealthy and disheveled, a purple stripe of hair curling over his face like Christopher Reeves' Superman. Eridan's trips into Sollux's cage were a bit more dicey, and took about twice the time that Feferi did. She was never sure if Eridan hated him for that, or for other reasons, but Eridan always tried to stay away from Sollux as much as possible.

Feferi always felt a little twang of pity in her heart like a harp string plucked. Some days, she could swear she was falling for the boy.

"I don't know, ---Eridan... Sometimes, I t)(ink I mig)(t be... falling for )(im?" She confided in her bony partner one day, after a particularly bad date with the latter. Well, it wasn't bad for him, but she was looking at Eridan with much newer eyes, that was for sure. They had gone out for drinks, then returned to Eridan's apartment, and when she took a quick trip to the bathroom, she couldn't help herself from snooping around. When she found unsent, crumpled letters, addressed to a serial killer, like journal entries of a maniac-to-be, she was unnerved. When she found photos of the Becquerel Black killings under his sink, she was outright frightened. When she exited the bathroom, she mentioned neither of them, and had simply put it in her mind to keep a very close eye on him and consider reporting it to the higher-ups. "But... t)(at's a conflict of interest. I'd never actually ACT on it or anyt)(ing. You know t)(at."

"yeah i knoww"He responded, and she watched as his pupil dilated and then shrunk in one rapid, sinuous motion, a dullness growing. "imma go get that done noww"

She thought nothing of it, until an hour later, when she heard whimpers and noises emerging from Sollux's room. Her heart sank in her chest.

"howw dare you fuckin evven consider LOVVIN her you fuckin freak" She heard as she bust in onto the bony visage of Eridan, smacking Sollux with a food tray. Hard. And not Sollux's food tray. Detritus was splattered across his straitjacket, and Sollux was visibly cringing and writhing, trying to get himself clean and symmetrical, while Eridan continued to slap him across the invisible line that split the room in half. "shes mine howw dare you fuckin try to take her awway LOOK AT ME YOU FUCKIN TRASH"

"-ERIDAN!" She yelled. He turned around, his eyes wide but dead, and wound up, before striking Sollux hard enough to knock a tooth out and send a splatter of blood across the padded room.

Feferi let out a shriek, turned on her heel, and blacked out.


	2. Tyrant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING: NC-17
> 
> If you can't bring yourself to watch gory horror movies, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

Feferi's eyes fluttered open, swirling in the back of her skull. She wasn't sure what was going on, where she was, or even who she was. Her head was pounding. The room smelled like coffee, and her face was warm.

"fef, are you okay? you look a little thirsty..." She heard someone, miles away, saying. Her eyes bulged and shrunk, her entire body in a vacuum chamber. Was she concussed? That was the most likely thing, she concluded - yes, she had a concussion at the very least. And what had happened? Her eyes focused on the pathetic figure lying in front of her, shuddering, placed on the opposite corner of the room. What was his name, again?

Sollux, that was it. Sollux Captor. Some of his teeth were lying on the padded floor, covered in blood, leaking from his face. Poor Sollux. Feferi wished she could hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright. She felt so sorry for him. If he was a normal person, she could easily see herself dating him.

Her body was flush. She was trying to move her arms, but they wouldn't obey her. A shadow loomed over front of her vision, tall, lanky, in the clothes of an... Orderly? That's it. Something brown and bulbous was in his hand, her vision splitting every other second. A broken rectangle of plastic laid on the floor. She looked up pitifully at the dark figure whose name she couldn't quite recall. Who was that, again?

"here, wwhy dont you havve a DRINK!" The figure yelled into her face, a thousand roaring microphones reverberating in her ear, rattling her dislodged brain in her skull. She saw the brown blob flying in her direction, like a hovering ball of mud.

Eridan. That was his name.

When the coffeepot shattered against her face, Feferi screamed. Everything burnt. Everything was warm, so warm, so hot, so hot. Her body was on fire. Someone grabbed her chin and tilted it upward, pouring what remained in the coffeepot down into her throat. She gurgled and coughed and choked.

Her eyes hurt so, so much.

Then, they didn't hurt at all.

"HOWW DARE YOU LOVVE HIM!" He screamed like a typhoon, as Feferi no longer felt her face. Her vision didn't work any more. She saw the tiniest smudge of vision tinted shit brown before her eyes shut down entirely. It wasn't black. It was rather peaceful, in fact, an empty void. It was impossible to explain what she saw. It was basically nothing. There was something sharp and hurty shoved into her stomach and torn outward. And then more sharp pains in her chest. "YOU WWERE SUPPOSED TO BE _MINE_ "

What?

What was happening?

It was so hard to think.

Feferi realized that she had been screaming the past five minutes.

How did she not notice that before?

Her throat hurt.

Her stomach hurt.

Everything hurt.

Then, nothing.


End file.
